Why a Summer School?
Urban design is more important than ever. With the housing crisis, an increasingly vulnerable environment and the threat of climate change, we need to rethink how we approach the building of cities as a society. We cannot afford to create low-quality, short-term solutions - we need to build to sustain, to use less resources in the long term and reduce our environmental impact. We must learn from past mistakes. Many mass housing developments have proven to not be as attractive, and thus as future-proof, as the designers intended. As a society we need more beautiful, attractive places; but how to build these?
Much of the necessary knowledge has been either lost or overlooked by recent generations of architects and urbanists. INTBAU, the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism, was founded to rebuild and spread this knowledge, to improve our built environment, and to create places where people feel at home, productive and happy. Summer schools in countries such as Sweden, Spain and Belgium have proven to be an effective way to inspire a new generation of urbanists to tackle the challenges of today. This is why we chose to organise the Summer School: Let’s Build a Beautiful City!
Our Vision
We envision the creation of many new, attractive places where people feel at home; places of wonder and beauty that reflect local tradition and history, but still function well in today’s technologically-advanced society. We envision places that are built for the present day with an eye toward the future, that will last much longer than most of today’s newly-built environments.
Top Class Tutors
At the Summer School, top-class international architects and urbanists will give lectures and instruct our students in design studios. Some of the best draughtsmen with a deep understanding of traditional and Classical architecture will instruct the students with the basic drawing & designing skills they need to become proficient designers. Names include Alejandro García Hermida, Robert Cox, Conor Lynch, Peter Drijver, Mieke Bosse and many others.
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Click here for a complete overview of our 2023 team of teachers!
Our Students
This Summer School is open to 24 people of all ages and walks of life. No previous education in the field is required. The diverse mix of students will ensure that there is the potential to learn from different perspectives: everyone with a passion for urbanism and architecture, both professionals and enthusiasts, can deepen their knowledge and skills during this Summer School.
Sustainability
One of the key focuses of this Summer School is to provide our students with the skills to create sustainable environments. Not only energy efficiency matters, but also the use of local, high quality materials and the durability of the urban fabric.
Attractiveness, harmony and beauty are essential factors in this mix, but these are sadly often overlooked in current day Architectural & Urban design curricula. This Summer School offers a curriculum in which these factors are key.
An Answer to the Housing Crisis
To solve the housing crisis, we need to build more homes. Our philosophy is that creating attractive, beautiful designs for new places is an effective way to inspire and even win over developers, investors, policymakers and politicians. Not only that: by offering an attractive prospect with beautiful urban designs, we believe it is also possible to generate bottom-up support for new urban development proposals. The work of ‘La Table Ronde d’Architecture’ in Belgium, which designs counter-proposals, generates ample media attention and proves this point.
Curriculum
The Summer School provides an engaging mix of lectures, studio exercises, field excursions, and design work. Leading architects, academics, and urbanists deliver lectures on urbanism and urban design, sustainability, classical and traditional architecture, and building methods. Studio exercises offer participants the opportunity to develop, or further enhance, their sketching, drawing and watercolor skills. The lectures, studio exercises and excursions will be put to practical use in a number of design projects ranging from individual buildings to larger urban spaces. The course culminates with a final design project where participants work together to design and exhibit a masterplan for a potential future community. It promises to be a wonderful, enriching experience and we hope to see you there!
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Practical Information
Dates: July 21st - August 7th, 2025
Utrecht, the Netherlands
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Studio and lectures: TBA
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Course Fee:
Regular price: €950,- (apply April 1st - May 1st)
Early bird price: €895,- (Apply before April 1st)
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Accomodations (optional):
Uithof, Utrecht - Johanna building: €655,-
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Keen to attend the summer school, but the location or dates aren't convenient for you?
Feel free to check out other similar summer schools here:
How to apply
News
01 / 18 / 2024 - Applications for 2024 OPEN
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The applications for our 2023 summer school edition are opened! Find the application link here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfWLyYOxBaYZgVrDYUM-Y9ULIAJSS_zJc-lJD8ScCJgUID5IQ/viewform
01 / 05 / 2023 - Applications for 2023 CLOSED
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The applications for our 2023 summer school edition have closed! For those interested to join but who have missed the deadline, stay tuned for the 2024 edition.
01 / 02 / 2023 - Applications for 2023 OPEN
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The applications for our 2023 summer school edition are opened! Find the application link here: https://forms.gle/kagtzgt5atSKMX5A8
Sponsoring Proposal
In order to make this Summer School a reality and to offer our students the best possible experience, various expenses have to be covered. For example, we would like to pay our teachers for their lectures and to have our overseas teachers to visit the Summer School in Utrecht. We also aim to keep the costs as low as possible for the students. To cover these costs, we depend on the charity of sponsors who believe in the mission of this Summer School. Naturally we are pleased to offer our sponsors value in return for their generosity.
Scroll down for the various sponsoring packages we present.
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Friend of the Summer School
As Friend of the Summerschool, your organisation’s name will be in the brochure of the Summer School and you will be able to attend one of the many interesting lectures.
€500
Bronze Sponsor
As Bronze Sponsor, your organisation’s name and logo will be visible on all the Summer School publications, as well as in the brochure. You will also be invited to attend a lecture and one of the studio sessions.
€1,000
Silver Sponsor
As a Silver Sponsor, you will get all the perks of the Bronze Sponsorship package (lecture + studio, name + logo in all publications). Apart from that, you will be invited to present yourself as person or organisation at one of the evening lectures and to have Q&A session with the students.
€2,500
Gold Sponsor
As a Gold Sponsor, you will get all the perks of the Silver & Bronze
Sponsorship packages. As key sponsor, you will be included as
one of the members of the final review board. Together with other experts, you will review the final works of the students. The name of your organisation will be on the ‘goodie bag’ handed out to the students.
€10,000
Contact
For inquiries, please send and e-mail to info@beautifulcity.nl .
For urgent matters, please contact:
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Our team:
Joseph Jutras
Chair
joseph.jutras@gmail.com
Ruben Hanssen
Treasurer
hello@theaestheticcity.com
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Alexander van Tuyll
Flavio Díaz Míron Rodriguez
Mieke Bosse
Vincent Veneman
Leonneke Elzenga
Ivo de Kogel
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Our foundation:
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Traditional and Classical Architecture and Urban Design Stichting
KvK Utrecht: 85094102 | SBI code: 94993 | RSIN:
Klik hier voor meer informatie over onze stichting
Klik hier voor ons beleidsplan 2023 (PDF)
Klik hier voor ons ANBI Publicatieplicht 2023 formulier (PDF)
Klik hier voor de statuten